The Story

Act I: "Good news, everyone!"

The Planet Express crew has been hired for their 100th delivery, which is delivering a soufflé. For this occasion, Bender plans the party of the millennium. Mrs. Astor, the addressee, lives on the Waldorf Asteroid, and so the crew flies there. Once the mission is complete, she invites Fry and the Professor to her fundraiser in the New New York Historical Societybuilding. Fry invites Leela along, but, during the fundraiser, which supports the United Mutant Scholarship Fund, Fry accidentally reveals to the guests that Leela, who felt outraged at the thinly-veiled racist treatment dispensed to mutants, is not an Alien, but rather a Sewer Mutant, who is living illegally on the surface. Leela is banished to the sewers and sees the horrors of living down there. In an attempt to rectify his mistake, Fry, along with the rest of the crew (except for Bender), go to Citihall. Due to another of Fry's blunders, Mayor Poopenmeyer finds out that they knowingly harbored Leela, and sentences them to 2 weeks below the surface. Meanwhile, Bender is throwing a great party with a lot of people. However, when he realises that he misses the rest of the crew, he orders everyone out and wallows in self-pity. Fry thinks living beneath the surface will be a good thing as he will now understand what being a Mutant feels like. Leela is angry at Fry (and all surface people for that matter) and states that if he wants to understand he should jump in Lake Mutagenic and become one.

Act II: "You are all surface."

Fry, Amy, Zoidberg, Hermes and the Professor find the remains of the Land Titanic.

Fry comes up with an excuse not to jump and Leela is left angry at him. Whilst walking in the sewers, the crew stumbles on the Land Titanic, a land bus in the shape of the Titanic, which struck a mail box and sunk beneath the surface in 2912. After looking through the ship for a while, they find a safe containing a rare Quantum Force Gemerald, and a list of passengers on board the vessel, including Mrs. Astor's late husband. The crew decides to stay in one of the cabins. Fry, unable to sleep, walks to the toxic lake. Leela, feeling guilty about how she treated Fry, goes to look for him to apologize. She finds him and tries to stop him, but Fry, thinking she's still mad at him, jumps in anyway. She goes out on the lake and pulls him out, only to find now that he is severely mutated. Having had enough of the situation, Leela, along with Fry and the rest of the crew, starts a revolt against the street dwellers. Fry returns to the surface for Bender, so that he can bend the West Side Pipeway to send all the sewage back up the pipes. This leads to the streets of New New York being covered with sewage. Mrs. Astor demands something to be done, and the Mayor orders an Antarian to send all the waste to Madison Cube Garden.

Act III: "What goes down must back up!"

With Leela in charge, the Mutants go up onto the surface and demand equal rights. Mrs. Astor orders her butler to fire an I See BM missile, which misses the Mutants and hits Madison Cube Garden, sending a tidal wave of sewage at them. Just before they are covered with sewage, Fry appears and uses the jewel to separate the sewage (emulating the Biblical scene with Moses and the Red Sea). Fry reveals to Mrs. Astor that they found the wreckage of the Land Titanic, along with a list of passengers, which included Mutants. Fry reveals an old and aged mutant, who was a young worker on the Land Titanic when it sunk. She reveals that Mr. Astor gave his seat up for her and her mother. Upon learning this, Mrs. Astor asks for the Mutants to be allowed to the surface, to which Mayor Poopenmeyer agrees. Leela states she now has the stomach to kiss Fry for all he's done. When they kiss, Fry and the body of another Mutant are separated. It turns out that Mr. Astor fell into the toxic lake and mutated when the Land Titanic sunk, and, when Fry jumped into the lake, he lodged himself into his mouth. Mr. and Mrs. Astor are united once again and hug. The crew returns to the Planet Express headquarters with Leela's family and celebrate their 100th delivery.

Production

A photo of Mike Rowe's production script have been uploaded by Mike Rowe onto his Facebook page. The cover of the script highlights it as the 100th episode, as well as revealing the title, "The Mutants Are Revolting". This episode was dedicated to the memory of Alex Johns, a producer of Futurama who passed away at 43 years old.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, the episode was viewed by an estimated 1.792 million households.[2]

Additional Information

The cover of the script for the episode.

Trivia

The title of this episode has double meaning, which is referenced in a newspaper headline in the episode - the first being that the mutants revolt against the humans, and the second being that the mutants look revolting. This may be a reference to the stonewall riots, a well known New York event in the gay rights movement where a sign with the words "homosexuals are revolting" was featured in many news articles of the event.

This is the second time Futurama makes a reference to the Titanic, the first being in "A Flight to Remember".

The narrator of "The Mutant" documentary is the same voice that narrated the fictional documentaries "I Dated A Robot" and "Global Warming".

This is the first time that a Futurama title caption pops out over the main title.

The episode's title caption is 100 using bent girders to spell it to signify that this is Futurama's 100th episode.

Quotes

"No!" [To a band member] "Play the other one."

Farnsworth: We've been hired to make our 100th delivery.[The crew cheers.]Zoidberg: 100!Hermes: That's almost 10 per year!Bender: This calls for a party, baby! I'm ordering a hundred kegs, a hundred hookers, and a hundred Elvis impersonators who aren't above a little hooking, should the occasion arise!

Mrs. Astor: A Farnsworth, you say? Well, if I'm not mistaken, the Farnsworths have been in New New York for almost two hundred years.Farnsworth: Yes, I have.

Narrator: Far beneath the everyday rumble of limousines and poodle feet, there toil a downtrodden people even less well off than the upper middle class.

Leela: Let's go. If I say one more thing, I might say it with my evening boot.Mrs. Astor: Well! Rarely have I never!

Leela: Oh, Mom, Dad, I can't believe I have to spend the rest of my life in this hellhole. [She pauses as her parents look shocked.] I'm sorry.Turanga Munda: It's okay, sweetie. Now that you're here, this hellhole feels more like a nice, regular hole.

Munda: Look, Leela, there's Old Filthful. [She points to a geyser. It shoots up sewage and mutants take pictures before being covered by the sewage.]

Leela: Look at that lake. One dip in that toxic muck and your DNA will be permanently mutated. You'll grow a camel hump or a Zoidberg face.Zoidberg: Urgh!

Farnsworth: It's a priceless quantum-force gemerald. [He uses it to blast the cruise director, turning the skeleton to an ash stain on the wall.]Zoidberg: What's that enscibbled on it?

Fry: Yeah, I'll never know love like that. Leela hates me now. [He sniffles.][Voice breaking.] Did you guys know I have a crush on Leela? [The Professor slaps him with the cruise director's arm.]

Turanga Munda: What's a matter, Leela? You've hardly touched your toilet clams.Leela: [She sighs.] Maybe I was too harsh on Fry. He didn't ruin my life on purpose.Turanga Morris: Things will work out, honey. Now here, have some more of what looks like lemonade. [He fills Leela's glass with a yellow liquid.]

Fry: My fellow mutants, until recently, I dwelt on the surface where a man can gaze up at the sky in wonder without a wet clump falling in his mouth.

Mutated Mark Mothersbaugh: Hello, Sewer City. [The mutants cheer.] As long-time mutants ourselves, we support your righteous struggle and will do anything we can for you.Dwayne: Play "Whip It"!Mutated Mark Mothersbaugh: No. [To a member of the band.] Play the other one.

The song that Devo plays instead of "Whip It" is "Beautiful World", another popular single by them.

When Dwayne asks, "Are we not men now?", he's making another Devo reference to the song "Jocko Homo", specifically the lyric "Are we not men? We are Devo!" (which also makes up the title of Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!, their 1978 debut album).

When Mark Mothersbaugh responds, he states that he's "40% potato", another reference to Devo, more specifically their fans who are called "Spuds".

Mutant Fry declaring, "Let my people stay" and using a toilet plunger to part the massive sewage is a reference to the story of Moses in Exodus and the parting of the Red Sea. More specifically, the scene is a parody of the scene from The Ten Commandments.

The Westside Pipeway resembles the Great Machine from Fritz Lang's movie Metropolis. The film is about a future where the rich and powerful live on top a city, while the exploited workers live a life of austerity underground.

The "2, 4, 6 eyes..." chant is a reference to the well known "2, 4, 6, 8..." chant.

In addition, Mr. Astor is probably a direct reference to John Jacob Astor IV of the RMS Titanic, who is rumored to have selflessly sacrificed his spot in a lifeboat for a young immigrant named Louis.

When mutant Fry says, "What goes down, must back up!", the line is a reference to Newton's Law Of Gravity: "What goes up, must come back down."

After getting washed away by the westside pipeway's explosion, Leela's dad says that those mutants are "with the C.H.U.D.s now," a reference to the 1984 B-horror film, C.H.U.D. (an acronym for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers"). The ninth season episode of The Simpsons, titled "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", also has a couple of references to the C.H.U.D.s.

The Michael Collins Mix references Michael Collins and the famous Collins Mix. As the drink was seen in the context of the Devolution Revolution, it is likely that it is a parody of Michael Collins, who was an Irish revolutionary leader. This may be a double allusion. Michael Collins was the name of the astronaut who piloted the command module for Apollo 11, making him one of the first three people to travel to the moon. On the bottle of Collins mix, there is a moon and stars.

Twice in the episode, a mutant with three breasts can be seen, a possible homage to the character Mary from the science fiction movie Total Recall. The only difference is that the mutant is less human in appearance.

After Professor Farnsworth had said they're making their 100th delivery, Hermes' response is "That's almost 10 per year." The statement is a mathematical reference to Futurama's run so far from 1999-2010 on TV.

A priceless can of Angry Norwegian anchovies can be seen on the ground as Fry leaves the Titanic to go swim in the lake. He had a similar can in the episode, "A Fishful of Dollars".

The Hyper-Chicken apparently survived his car crash from "Proposition Infinity".

Before Bender's party, he calls for Fry and Hermes, the only two known humans he does not wish to kill. Hermes was added to Bender's "do-not-kill" list in "Lethal Inspection".

The Nude Bartender from Planet XXX is seen attending Bender's party. Evidently, he was not censored with the rest of the planet in "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela".

In "Love's Labours Lost in Space" Amy says that rings are stupid, and no-one likes them any more, implying that it was once popular to like rings. In the flashback, we see Mr. Astor wearing them on his hat.

A quantum force gemerald appears for the first time since "Less than Hero".

Goofs

When Mr. Astor lifts his hat for the first time, his head is full of hair. When he lifts it for the second time, however, he's bald.

During the documentary on Mutants, a poodle is seen walking by (and the narrator states "below poodle feet") even though in "Xmas Story", Farnsworth established that Christmas trees were "gone with the way of the poodle", meaning poodles no longer existed.

There are a few possible counterpoints:

It could be that poodle remains were found and that the poodle was cloned, bringing them back to life, like in "Jurassic Bark" where the remains of Fry's dog Seymour are almost used to clone him.